When the first one broke, I worked like a cobbler to try to fix it, but I could not get the screw back under the spring inside the leg joint. So I stuck the wooden leg in my desk and put the manikin out of commission.

This year, I purchased 4 new guys and brought the old ones out of retirement. I hot glued the missing parts back in place, now they aren't as re-positionable, but they are stationary statues that I can use to decorate for Halloween.

After hot-gluing the missing parts, I just used regular acrylic paint to jazz them up. I used an old scrap of a black canvas apron for the vampire. For the mummy, I tore a cheesecloth into strips and wrapped him up. Franky was made with just paint and a couple of screws.

I kind of like that they are faceless.....it makes them a little less scary. What do you think, should I paint faces on them?

Over the summer, I read a couple of books on Fung Shui (here and here) and a couple of articles about fung shui in the classroom.

As a result, I decided that first, I needed to get rid of some of the red decor elements I had every where in the room. Our school colors are red and columbia blue, so I've always been drawn to red as a decor color but it does cause excitability. Red is an intense color, but I had about 6 pieces of furniture painted red and a bright red rug on the floor. I didn't want to totally repaint everything so I took a little inspiration from Cassie Stephens and turned this stool into a paint pallette and transformed the rungs into brushes.

​I did repaint one red metal cabinet with a very light blue. I'm thinking I will zentangle a design on here or something fun someday, it just hasn't happened yet.

The smaller table in the photo below used to be hot pink and decoupaged with loud craft paper. I toned it down with the a layer of baby blue paint and put it near my desk. I need lots of little tables at the front of the room for each project as I always have tons of visuals and supplies. I put my desk at the front of the room, turned at an angle facing the door. It is not exactly in the center of the front, but it is off to one side and if I compare it to the bagua map, this is the perfect spot for knowledge and self cultivation.

According to the bagua map (since my classroom door is in the southwest corner of the room, it isn't the ideal layout to work with the map, I am using the place on the chart below where the door icons are, is true North, with the left side being east and the right side being west). This puts my sinks in the perfect spot for career and life path, flowing water, etc.

I also added a second white board to my room this year so that my students could face east instead of west. My clock is on the west wall, and now I can watch it but they can't really see it if they are facing front. And their backs are to the door, which is nice too, way less distractions.

I feel like the 'flow' of my room and the energy has been better this year than ever before. Maybe it is just wishful thinking, maybe it is having nicer classes, or maybe there is something to this whole energy thing.

I saw this paintbrush wreath on the facebook group Art Teachers: Beg Borrow and Steal by Vallerie Ivy and I immediately had to order the paint brushes and make one myself. I worked on this in July, before I went back to school. It hangs in the all outside my room now. My husband helped me drill holes in the paint brushes and, one near the metal and one on the end. I strung some aluminum wire in the holes and it when together quite quickly. I even had some paint brushes left over that I painted to use as hall passes.

This table got a makeover. It was solid red, and I painted the legs to look like pencils and added a little texture to the top. I used an old can of textured spray paint that was already in my room.

This is a full on Cassie Stephens copycat. I needed a new door wreath that would last all year and this was so cheap and easy to throw together, I could not resist. I got an extra piece of wood and painted a sign for the hall with my name on it (below).

It is so hard to hear my students say: I can't do it! I am not good at this! I hate this! and other negative language along those lines. I really wanted a way to encourage my middle schoolers to try, even though art maybe isn't their strongest or their favorite subject, it can still be fun and rewarding. I found this blog, which has a set of free printable PDFs to make your own of Growth Mindset Posters. I left off the math one she had in the PDF and typed up my own art version instead. It is a great bulletin board for the end of the year or beginning of the year.

I searched high and low for for the perfect guide to help me set up a printmaking studio for the last week in my classroom. 6 classes a day with a 2 minute passing period does not allow me very much time to regroup or make changes once the train starts moving down the track----the preparations must be done in advance and the flow must make sense if students are moving around the room.

I considered showing a video, or making one to demonstrate the process, and by Friday, when my voice was almost completely gone, I wish I would have (spring colds are weird!)....but it took so long to set up the stations that I did not have time to do both, and some of my instructions changed a bit after working with some of my biggest classes. None of the videos I found online were quite right either.

Through this process I learned what NOT to say and what to really reinforce. Also, since I had wooden spoons on the tables----some classes needed more firm reminders not to spank each other or pound on the table than others.

I came up with a couple of things that really worked for me and a couple of things that I probably won't do again. Also, this post helped me initially.

Due to field trips, interruptions and scheduling conflicts, (since it is the end of the year) it worked out that I only printed with 3 classes each day----wow! That never happens. I was able to stagger the printing so that only the morning or only the afternoon classes were printing. This worked out super well.

In some cases, I stretched the initial carving lesson an extra day, and had students pre-select their paper for printing and write their names on the back the day before we actually printed---and then I clipped their papers together by table so that I could distribute them very quickly the next day. This worked great---gave the students an extra day to finish carving their designs. Some were a little rushed, especially since I did not have time to stretch every class---but since it is the end of the year, we had to push through.

Before the students came, I set up the printing stations. Also, most classes had already carved their stamps. I will talk about the stamp carving process at the end---yes, I am going in reverse order. Sorry. It is the end of the year.

I used tempera paint for this process--not as sticky as real printing ink and dried really quick---but pretty washable and cheap.

On my long counter by the sink, rolled out some old printer paper--it was the perfect size, easier than using bulletin board paper in this case. I put masking tape on each of the perforations and along the edges. Then I put a red rectangle at each 'stop'. This is where students would put their block before rolling it with ink.

Initially I thought I would use these pink meat trays--but the brayers did not roll in them, something I found out in my early morning trial run at the stations before school.

I ended up removing the meat trays---I don't have any acrylic or plexi---so I just used the table surface itself. I had enough clear packing tape to cover each of my printing stations. It worked WAY better than saran wrap--which I also tried. I literally wrapped the entire counter, an 8-foot table and my wooden work bench with clear packing tape. I probably did not need the white paper underneath, but it helped them to see what color they were using and it was easy to clean up---came right off Friday afternoon at the end of the week.

Students basically kept their papers at their normal tables, and carried their block to the stations to print it. I had them wipe their block with a dry paper towel in between colors if they wanted to, but reminded them that if the colors mixed, that tended to look cool---and could make the design even more unique---but if their drawings were too 'gunked' up with the thicker paints (like silver and gold) they would definitely want to wipe the foam off and possibly even carve out some of the lines with a pencil. (Wet foam is hard to dry off)

I tried to wipe the red rectangles with a sponge between classes. This was the very first class. Going well.

Sixth graders did great---for the most part. I did have to send a couple of kids to time-out for being disruptive during my instructions. ﻿That seemed to remind the others to take the lesson seriously and realize that I wasn't putting up with any nonsense. It would be fun--but they still needed to follow directions and pay attention otherwise the process would not work for them.

Since I have some classes of 33, I decided to set up a total of 12 colors at 12 locations around the room. This way, if half the class were rolling inking, the other half, in theory, would be at their seats printing--and at least a few in every class would get a late start because they still needed to finish carving their stamps because of absences or intricate designs which would help with the flow.

I borrowed an 8 ft white table from the custodians for one of my stations. It was nice to have that extra work space to spread the students out---most major issues were during clean up when all 30 needed to wash their hands at the same time.

In most cases, I had a little time in between classes (because of lunch or field trips) to wipe off the red rectangle. The entire silver/gold station got quite 'inky' but I was okay with that. I did cover the station with a trash bag to protect it from wandering fingers if the morning classes printed but the afternoon classes did not---this silver and gold table is also right where students line up at the end of class so I had to keep an eye on it.

You know that moment, when you have 328 students and they all ask you the exact same question and you KNOW that you already told them the answer and you are so tired of saying it that you think your head is going to explode?

Well, I came up with a solution to: where do I put my stamp/block/thingy when I'm done printing?

I explained that in the printmaking world, usually artists use linoleum, carving rubber or even wood for the printmaking process, those are called blocks. I held up a couple to show how thick real blocks are. But since we are using a thin piece of foam---we are going to call it our cheese----almost so thin its like it was shaved off a big block, it is so thin like a Kraft Single! Everybody say: 'mmmmm, mmmmmm, good!" So we called the 'block' which was so thin and wimpy it didn't even resemble anything looking like a block----the CHEESE. Which helped them remember what to do with it.

Initially, I had every student create 2 designs for their stamp. I folded a 6X9 sheet of paper in half when I handed it out, explaining that they would draw a design on each half-- one of which would fit perfectly on the stamp.

I encouraged them to use lots of textures, pattern, feathers, scales, draw big, etc. I discouraged them from flags, logos, cartoon characters, numbers, letters or words----because they print as a mirror image for this project---those things are really hard to incorporate---so just try to stay away from them.

Many kids wanted to argue that the 'Underarmour' logo would be the same backwards and forwards and that they really could draw the nike symbol in reverse---but alas---I prevailed to enforce the all or nothing policy, infuriating some and inspiring others...many just drew a softball because it was 'easy' and I gently forced them to put a pattern or something in the background in order to make it a better design. Some drew things that were too small, others could not think of anything so I pulled out some visuals----handouts of owls, celtic designs, mola pattern book, and Maori tribal art to help them develop something...anything...that would work. Some were really creative, their mythical creatures or optical illusions were amazing. Others....not so much........

After I approved one of their two designs, I handed them their foam. Otherwise known as their 'cheese'. They could either re-draw the design into the foam with a pencil. OR use the transfer method---lay the drawing on top of the foam and re-draw it by tracing over their old lines with a colored pencil. Using a colored pencil helped them keep track of what they had already done. In most cases, nearly everyone needed to go back over the foam in order to press the lines in a little deeper.

Some of them understood this---some did not. So before we printed, I checked each and everyone of the stamps before I handed them over to the student, and told them one-on-one, man-o-e-mano, face-to-face, CARVE THE LINES A LITTLE DEEPER. Some thought that meant re-tracing with the paper on top again--which ripped the drawing to shreds----so I had to be really clear---just press your pencil into the foam a little harder--but don't tear it up. If the lines are not deep enough, the block won't make a good print.

I only had enough foam for each kid to get one piece so I had to be frugal---no 2nd chances. Some of my students try to sneak extra supplies if I am not paying attention, so I kept the foam on my desk to discourage wasting/stealing it.

After they carved their 'cheese' they had to make me a grilled-cheese sandwich. Huh?

Take the paper with the two sketches, folded like a card----make that the bread....slide the cheese inside...and PUT IT IN THE FRYING PAN! Where is the frying pan? The class box!

I said all of this with great enthusiasm and gusto---even with my sore throat. I had students repeat it and even though it was silly, it helped them remember.

Later, when kids asked me where to put their stamps: I just said, "Make me a grilled cheese!" and that helped jog their memory. My head did not explode when I commanded them to serve me something yummy....at least I wasn't as impatient as I would have been repeating: "THE CLASS BOX!" over and over and over and over and over.

After printing, we followed the same procedure. Printed papers went on the drying wrack, stamps and drawings went into the 'frying pan'. The stamps could've went in the drying wrack but were so small that they would've fallen through the shelves so I decided not to mess with that chaos.

I rescued a whole bundle of this wide rule notebook paper from the dumpster so I cut it in half and put a big stack on each classroom table. I encouraged students to use it as a 'cover sheet' to keep the table clean, and also as a practice print. Some of their practice prints were the best print they got from the series. I don't really mind the notebook paper---it worked well for this process. Easier than cutting up newspaper, for me anyway.

Note to self: Don't say: 'Awesome Tardis!' to a student in front of a bunch of non-Dr. Who-loving-students. The kids who are out of the loop thought I was saying something inappropriate about the girl who carved the Tardis.

But seriously, isn't an awesome Tardis?

Above: After 10 classes. The stations were holding up pretty well. I used a scouring pad to remove paint from the red rectangle if it got too dry to wipe off.

Below: Don't put white and black side-by-side unless you want more of a gray. Also, the brown looked like poop. And yes, the kids noticed.

Yes, those are my Pampered Chef spoons from home. Yes, they are covered in paint, some of them are stained forever. Yes, I am okay with it. Here they are, before the week of printing. Also, the paper is shaving cream marbled paper that we made in April.

Favorite moment: During the last class, I overheard one shy boy at one of the stations, using his brayer like a steam-roller softly singing, "They see me rollin'....they hatin'....." I decided to make it a meme. Also, do not look up rollin' on Urban Dictionary.

Tips:

1. Give students a little direction when carving their stamps. My suggestions were too open, and they had trouble thinking of an idea and we ended up with a lot of sports balls....Which is hard to explain to 5th and 6th graders with a straight face---Who's paper is this with all the balls? You forgot your name!?. (Ex. cultures, geometric, optical illusions would be better)2. Set up the stations in advance, borrow a table if necessary to set up as many stations as you can fit in the room so that everyone can rotate to whichever colors they want without waiting too long.3. Have students put names on papers before printing---best if it is the class period before---have those sorted and ready to distribute easily.4. Remember that even though you do a demonstration with the entire class, some individual students will STILL need one-on-one help.5. Keeping the paint jugs near the station worked well for the best classes, not so well for the worst classes who dumped out WAY too much paint just to make messes. I might've forgotten to say 'Just use a LITTLE bit of paint if it gets too dry'....or they might've just been acting like hooligans.6. After they ink up the block (or in our case the 'cheese') I told them to put it MAYO SIDE UP on their table---and lay the paper ON top of it----the opposite of rubber stamping where you mash the stamp onto the paper....Dozens of students messed this up and put it face down, and it worked out fine, so maybe I was being a little too picky...it bothered me when they slapped it down onto the paper, but the end result was usually fine.7. Students need to work quickly otherwise the paint dries before they press the paper to the block.8. Students might want paint shirts, and need leave jackets, hoodies and sweaters off. I realized this AFTER I dropped a paint-covered block smack on the back of a boy's hoodie, leaving a big, black rectangular imprint. Oopsie.

Overall, this was a great project, that will probably be even better if I do it again with my 6th graders next year, since they did it in 5th grade, it would be easier to implement. Also, if I can give instructions with the full strength of my voice, that always helps.

Ah, the Vikings. I love teaching about how the Vikings mastered the sea, navigating vast expanses of open sea without compasses, satellites, or radio communications. Their skillfully crafted wooden ships could take them anywhere. This little Viking ship postcard is just one visual that belongs in a packet of images related to Celtic and Viking art. It is amazing that I can successfully navigate the makeshift filing system of artifacts and visuals located in the below a little school house in my district. The storage room, to a few art teachers I work with, is known lovingly as THE BASEMENT. It is smelly, damp, buggy, and crammed with boxes, foam trays, egg cartons, posters, you name it, we probably have it in the basement. It doesn't have an electronic filing system and the selves aren't labeled with fancy shelf markers. Quite frankly, it is a haven for cockroaches, the Grand Budapest Hotel for those crunchy critters to hide in the cardboard and foam.

To access THE BASEMENT, one must first descend a treacherous staircase, arms loaded with boxes and packets and files. It is much better if you can experience this your first time when the stairs are icy. At the very least, you must visit when it is a 110 degrees, as you press your armload of supplies against yourself and fumble with the keys to unlock the padlock. When I go at night, I'm always afraid that the Basilisk from Harry Potter will pop out of that little drain in the ground while my hands are full and I am trying to unlock the lock. At the very least, I am afraid of a black snack, curled up in the leaves in the corner will slither over while I am trying enter the basement, and I will be too afraid of its little army of baby snakes hiding in the leaves to go into the storage room.

This room has not been cleaned for many years. Another teacher and myself, spent a couple of hours last spring hauling out piles of old boxes and dried up paint that had come to live amongst the clutter. As disorganized and chaotic as this looks to a layperson, I can assure you that Leslie and I can determine exactly where a little postcard of a Viking ship should reside, and we can file it the correct spot, in a matter of just a few seconds. Whenever we go to the basement, it is a quick IN and OUT sort of trip. Grab what you need and bolt.

This location is a great place to keep colored sand for sand painting, a box of old shoes for shoe printing, extra plastic buckets for making paper, shells, bubble wrap, all the junk that is helpful once in a while, but you just don't have room to store in a classroom. I can't imagine NOT having a place to put all of these big packets full of visuals and samples. When I traveled between schools, it was so nice having a neutral location for these things so that I didn't not have to wonder which school they were housed, they were at the basement. To most people, this room probably just looks like a giant junk heap. But I can't imagine teaching art without access to all of the stuff that is stored down here. It might look completely unorganized, but once you learn the system, the room is filled with treasures (ahem, to an art teacher). And you might argue that this room is really Leslie's accomplishment, and I am just her little understudy in the basement of wonders, but I have my own little corner, filled with all kinds of great things too. Where do you store all of your random supplies? Do you have to scavenge for every project or is there somewhere that you keep stuff like this?

Post a picture of your classroom, and describe what you see--and what you don't see that you'd like to.Happy Friday everyone!!This room has some good bones. It is large, but not too big. It has a great storage closet and some decent cabinet space. If I could change anything--WINDOWS! More floor space for big tables where students can move and spread out. More tables for specialized art centers, because when everyone is up and moving, there isn't enough room for a lot of specialty materials. I'm very lucky to have technology. I was also lucky to get the tables that I do have donated, but sometimes every single chair is full, so we don't have a lot of space to spread out, for those kiddos that need a special seat or that like to work alone. This post is part of the 30-Day blog challenge for teachers. #reflectiveteaching

Finally! Here is a peek at my new room. See the 'BEFORE' pictures HERE. Open house was a huge success. Many of the 6th graders were like WOW, it is so clean in here! It is like a completely different room. They were blown away. I also had several parents offer to volunteer....I've haven't had a lot of that before, but it is very exciting to have those eager parents who are so supportive right out of the gate!!

The black and white mural in the corner was already in the room when I moved in, so I am lucky to have it. A student who helped paint it stopped by with her brother and I got meet her and she wrote her name below it. Cool moment!The tables were donated by a great friend, champion, and mentor Josie Mai. The shape and dimensions of the tables allowed me to really rearrange things in the space.

Most of the decor was given to me by students, like this awesome metal plaque above. LOVE THIS!!Or found at garage sales and flea markets. The mona lisa curtain was found at a garage sale several years ago for $15!!

You might want to refer to the BEFORE photo here to see the transformation in this corner. Love how the beaded curtain is reflected in one of the mirrors. I've collected those mirrors at flea markets over the years.I was very lucky to have the chance to get the district wood shop crew into the room over the summer to build the bookcase and the cabinets.

If you are looking for FREE---COOL--COLOR--printable--CLASSROOM--signs, LOOK HERE.

To label my tables by color, I spray painted old paint cans, and then dripped paint down the sides. I used glow-in the dark paint, glitter paint, whatever. They are lightweight and look really cool hanging from the ceiling!

I'm excited for the year to start! If you are ever at the middle school, stop by and visit!!

I've had a great run as a K-4 art teacher, but this year, I'm moving up to our 5th and 6th grade middle school position. I'm excited that all of my students will be able to read....I think it will be a game changer for expectations and learning, since I spent most of my days breaking down basic procedures, this will be a whole new way of experiencing teaching and education. Part of the move means setting up the new space to make it conducive to learning. I've used the new classroom before, during summer school, and I'm sure I imagined what I would change to make the room better....so I finally had the opportunity to get in there this summer. Luckily, the timing was right and I was able to do several amazing things to improve the room. In this post, I will show you the BEFORE photos of the room. These were taken during summer school. For the record, the class in the pictures was exceptionally small and did a good job of staying on task so I used them as my 'models'. Future classes in my new job will be MUCH bigger, up to 32 or 33 at times.

I had a lot of time to visualize the room before my furniture/books/supplies were moved on July 7th. I knew that some new tables were to be donated to replace the ones in the photos above, so I could reconfigure the layout a bit. I also knew I was bringing in my own, smaller teacher-desk and having some custom cabinets installed by the district. So I used a really cool program called Floor Planner to map out the room. It was fun to create this 3-d map of the room before moving everything...it also helped me realize that I have more stuff (since I am moving 2 classrooms worth of stuff), than I needed for this room. It gives you a 2-d representation of the space, as well as a 3-d view to help with positioning and everything.

This classroom also has a storage closet, I'm really excited to have a place to put all the stuff that doesn't need to be visible, but needs to be available. The decor was pretty sparse...one optical illusion mural in the corner, a couple of posters, but not much else.A lot of elementary teachers I have worked with, feel like every surface should be covered with something. Every visible wall space should be useable in some way, covered with posters, charts, classroom management materials, inspirational quotes. I'm working with a lot of white walls, what do you think? Is an elementary classroom with lots of stuff on the walls 'too busy' or is it necessary? Do you think too much stuff can be a distraction or do you think it helps with the creative process? Is it inspirational or a distraction?I'd love to hear your thoughts!!I'll post the AFTER pictures soon!! Or you could stop by during open house Monday 5:30-7:00 and see for yourself. We will have a collaborative mural going, so you can even do a little painting while you are there.

Have you seen the alcohol ink tiles all over Pinterest? These make great coasters, but I wanted a permanent installation in my classroom so I had my students design a tile for the tile wall.

The students used Adirondack Ranger Inks at a little art center I had set up in the corner of my classroom. (I purchased the inks one package at a time, for several weeks using up my Michaels and Hobby Lobby 40% and 50% off coupons). The inks can be a little pricy, but they are so colorful that they are worth it! I limited the kids to 3 colors because I was afraid of running out.

During parent teacher conferences, I had a station set up to allow any parents who stopped by to visit my room to make a tile. Not very many stopped in, so I had plenty of time to install the tiles--it only took about an hour and a half to do this whole wall. We used liquid nails to adhere the tiles to the wall and placed the tiles very close together. We did not use grout, we thought that it looked really cool without grout, but you could definitely grout yours if you decide to try this.

This colorful addition to my classroom will hide splatters of dirty water. It will be easier to wipe off. Best of all, this whole project was relatively inexpensive. If you decide to try this, it would be worth asking PTO to purchase the tiles and ink.

Alcohol Ink Tile Backsplash Supplies Needed:Adirondack Ranger InksRubbing alcoholSponge brushes (to apply the alcohol evenly to the surface of the tiles)White ceramic tileKrylon's Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Acrylic GlazeLiquid NailsDry tile cutter(Grout: optional)Step 1: Watch this video on how to make alcohol ink tiles. (It says to use a blending solution...I just used rubbing alcohol)Step 2: Spray tiles with an acrylic glaze. Let dry for 4 or more hours.Step 3: Install your tile wall using liquid nails. Just squirt it out on the back of the tiles and stick it on the wall. We also had a dry tile cutter to custom fit tiles around the wall and sink.

Mindware has been sending me catalogs forever. My classroom had a few products for 'brainy kids' when I aquired it, but over the years, I have added to my collection of free-choice activities.

Last year, I asked my PTO to buy several new products from Mindware, around $150 worth of new things. The games I requested were a great investment, and will last many years. I am in the process of setting up art centers, at the end of last year I piloted it with one class and WOW! it changed my life. The additional games will help to keep the centers interesting and give a wide variety of options to students. Students were able to select an activity (after we completed one group project). These products are along side of traditional activities including play dough, crazy scissors, markers+coloring sheet, magazines+scissors, puzzles, bingo dobbers, beading and wire for necklaces, stencils, stamps, scrap paper with punches, and games like Connect 4 and Guess Who?.

Pic Wits! WOW! What a fun game! Students have a caption and then have to find a picture that best matches it. One person judges the photos and selects one, it is just like Apples to Apples, except with a picture! This would be fun to play with the whole class and a document camera.

Pattern Play is a colorful, math-building puzzle block set. One of my autistic students who is almost completely non-verbal has incredible success using the pattern cards to re-create the puzzles on the wooden board. REALLY GREAT for students with special needs.

Block Buddies is a small set of colorful blocks with puzzle cards for students to re-create various images using the blocks. Since I have another big set of blocks in my room, this one gets a little lost among the other activities. I really like the puzzle cards and I plan to challenge my students to use this one more often this year.

BlickBlock is a hit among the boys with its architecture-themed building cards. Students in my room have even put together their own 'marble' run with these blocks. Sometimes I forget how stimulating BLOCKS are to students...even older kids love to construct things with the block, not just kindergarten!

LED Rainbow Projectoris a big hit whenever we paint watercolor rainbows. Be sure to buy batteries! I love this little lamp and the kids love it too! I don't let them play with it, but sometimes I pull it out as an 'extra' little something to WOW them at the beginning or the end of a lesson.

The Zoob Challenge set is a favorite for boys. It allows them to build things. Its a big investment initially, but the pieces last for years!

The Straws and Connectors set is a wonderful activity for a group or individual students who love to build things. I allowed my older students to use my step ladder to make a tower all the way to the ceiling. Other groups stretched it all the way across the room. This was a great investment, I wish I would've gotten the biggest set possible though because the little connectors BREAK easily. Within the first week about a dozen of them had broken, it is frustrating because I have no way to replace those parts.

The Imaginets are awesome for fine motor building. Great for younger students! I have a metal cabinet in my room. I hung the laminated cards on a hook and the kids can move the pieces around the cabinet. The little magnet board is cool too, and I might move them back the board so that they can utilize them while seated.

The Mosaic MagnaPictures are awesome for 3rd and 4th grade. Students enjoyed working in groups to put together a 'color-by-number' design. I have both sets: Pictures and Patterns. My only gripe is that the baggies rip open...making it hard to keep all the little pieces secure. I need to find a good way to store the little mosaic pieces....not sure if individual zip locks would be good or if I should throw all the pieces into one big bag...